"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

There was never an ill motive in the heart of the Saviour, and the caption under the picture of His sacrificial life, reads: He glorified God on the earth (see John 17:4) . His every thought, word, and deed was motivated by His unflinching determination to glorify His heavenly Father, and Paul says: “... He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (II Corinthians 10:17). - preacher Oscar Mink , excerpt from 'Contending for the Faith with a Right Motive'  

Jesus, the Unabridged Version of God by D G Miles McKee   One of the reasons God became a man was to destroy Satan and open the way to eternal life.  No one but God was qualified for this task because no one but the Almighty was strong or wise enough to accomplish such a feat.   The Mighty God, our Redeemer, came to undo and destroy the shocking distress that Satan had exacted upon us … and did so by becoming human.   Why human?  Why did He not become a super angel?    He became human because it was the human race that Satan had destroyed in the Fall.  It was then, as a true human, the eternal Word was born.  In His doing and dying, He received the full onslaught of Satan and put him away by His great sacrifice at the cross (Colossians 2:15) .   To paraphrase Anselm (AD 1033-1109),   “And so also was it proper that the devil, who was man’s tempter, and had conquered him when he ate of the tree, should be conquered by an...

" From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the LORD’s name is to be praised." -Psalm 113:3 [KJV] Praise is the incessant employ of glorified saints in heaven. There they fully see and eternally sing of the electing, redeeming, sanctifying, glorifying love of the blessed Trinity ( -Father, Son & Spirit ) . May our souls catch some of the heavenly flame of love, and imitate them in our praise to-night. This is the work of an humble heart.  Pride is the parent of murmuring and discontent. A sense of the blessings of the Lord, and a sight of our unworthiness of them, excite praises in the heart. This is the language of a praising soul, Why me, Lord ? Why am I singled out from the ruins of a fallen race, to partake of thy special grace, peculiar love, and precious salvation? Am I better than others? Have I done more to deserve thy mercies than others? Have I a greater right to challenge thy favour than others? O, Lord! why me ?  Thus, while the so...

"They shall grow as the vine." -Hosea 14:7 [KJV] And how doth the vine grow? Why, in those soils that are favourable to it, vines are not erect like trees, neither are they fixed, as we do our vines, against walls; but the vine creeps along upon the ground, and rests its tender stalk and branches upon the nearest prop that will stay it. And, my soul, is it not so with the believer that wholly leans upon Jesus, and throws the arms of faith wholly upon Him, as the staff, and stay, and support of all confidence. And there is another property of the vine which carries with it a striking resemblance to the believer, namely, the tenderness of its nature, and danger to which it is exposed. How very weak, and poor, and frail, and helpless, is the child of God. What can a believer perform in himself? And what an host of foes is he exposed to; corruption within, and the enemy on every side, makes his case truly like the vine, exposed to the wild beasts, and nipping winds...